The 2 days leading up to our stop in Jamaica was filled with what limited research we had. I browsed Carnivals message forums frantically looking for something to do in Ocho Rios. In only a matter of hours we would be in a port that we had no idea or intention of visiting. And I still had not found anything to do. The only thing that I knew was there were the waterfalls that you could climb. That sounds fun. We should do that. We could only hope that our prayers would be answered and we would be guided to something to do in port.
As we walked off the ship we still had no clue of what to do. Our first impressions of the island scenary was positive. The island itself is very pretty. Very lush, green, and mountainish. Pretty much everything that the Grand Cayman wasn't. However we heard that Jamaica was scary and they weren't kidding. Upon walking off the ship we found ourselves in a small courtyard surrounded by tall walls with barbwire and guards with machine guns standing at the gates. As we were wondering one of the security ladys came up to us and asked if she could help us with anything. We told her that we were intersted in going to the waterfalls, doing some shopping, and seeing the Island. She asked us to follow her where she took us to one of the waiting tour buses.
Turned out the tour bus she took us too was the number one rated tour guide on Tripadvisor. Knowjamaica.com For only $25 they would take us to the waterfalls (they cost extra to get into), give us a tour of the city, take us up into the rainforest, and give us time to do some shopping. This tour sounded like the answer to our prayers that we were looking for. Before long the bus was finished being loaded and our tour had begun.
The first stop would be what I looked forward to the most. The waterfalls which is actually called the Dunn River Falls. As we were being driven we were given a word of warning though. That being not to give our names to anyone who asked. I guess the local street vendors would immediatly carve you name into something if you did so to try and guilt trip you into buying it. They also told us to beware of other locals looking for a quick buck.
The falls cost an additional $25 per person to get in to. If you want to climb them though you must have fully inclosed shoes. You cannot climb them in flip flops for safety reasons. They did have shoes you could rent. Luckly Kiera and I brought some water shoes from home to wear.
The area of the falls was very pretty. Possibly one of the prettiest places I have ever been. The Falls became famous after the James Bond film Dr. No was filmed there. I guess if you climb the falls from the bottom to the top it can make for a tough climb. So the falls is pretty much a continuous chain of people. The falls themselves are beautiful. I havn't seen anything like them before.
We made our way to the bottom of the falls where there was a beach on the Ocean. Before our route change we had a dedicated beach day and a dedicated shopping day. Now those would have to be merged into one. So this short time on the Dunn River beach would be our only beach time of the whole trip. The water of course was very pretty. Typical of the Caribbean. However the beach left much to be desired. Better then the one in the Bahamas last year but not as great as other Caribbean beaches we had been to. It was neat though to see the waterfalls running into the ocean. Kinda weird feeling the warm ocean water mixing with the cold river water.
After our time on the beach we headed back up the stairs. When nearing the top Kiera and I decided to get in the river to get some photos with the falls. Kyle came with us to take the photos but unfortunatly with Valisa only having Flip Flops she didn't get in. After the photos Kyle and I decided to actually climb up the rest of the falls while the girls took the stairs. It was actually easier to climb then I thought they would be and i'm glad to say that I got to do it. I mean where else can you climb a waterfall in the jungle. Once again another once in a lifetime experiance.
Being done climbing the falls and time to kill until our tour bus would be back we decided to look around the vendor shops. And our guides weren't lieing. The locals were very pushy and tried to guilt trip you in to buying anything they had. I have never felt so presured before. They were by far the worst. Yes even worse then the street vendors in Mexico can be. Plus since it was Jamaica you saw alot more offers to buy drugs.
Our bus soon arrived and we continued our tour. The next portion would be the "city" tour as they drove us around Ocho Rios. There actually wasn't a whole lot to see. However just like it was when we took our tour in Nassau it really was an eye awakening experiance to see how these people live. You could tell that Jamaica is very poverty stricken as people were literally living in shacks. All the buildings looked like they would topple over if someone sneezed wrong. It so sad to see such poverity in one of the prettiest places i've ever been. While driving around the city we did pass the local LDS church which was located in a business building. Kyle and Valisa would walk down there later to get a photo and had a pretty scary incident. But thats a story for another time.
After driving around the city we were drove up to the rain forest. Which is really where all the crazies live. They took us to some man who lived in a cave and sold different herbs and fruits. Very strange but we got our photo with him lol. They also passed around some of the things he sold such as coco beans and other fruits. We also went past the "fire man" A guy who came up to the bus and blew fire. Just seeing this guy you knew he must be crazy. In other countries we've been to it seems like the vendors seem to all be in the same general locations. Not in Jamaica. There would be random booths set up just on the side of the road. Even though they sold the same stuff as the more popular tourist areas.
They next took us to the top of a mountain so that we could over look the city and the ocean. The views were very pretty as you overlooked the island. We never got off the bus here but just in case we did there were not only more random vendor booths set up on the side of a mountain but also photo oppertunitys to take a picture with a donkey lol.
The final part of our excursion was the shopping portion. Which unfortunatly would be our shortest portion of the excursion. We now had to shrink what we planned an entire day for into 1 hour. So needless to say the shopping was a mad rush running store to store looking for the things we wanted to not only bring home for ourselves but also for our families too. We pushed it right to the last possible minute but we found pretty much everything we wanted. The tour guides were even kind enough to make an additonal stop for Kyle so that he could get another Hard Rock shirt in Ocho Rios.
We soon arrived back to the port to reboard ourship. Of course that wasn't until after one of the armed guards came aboard the bus to check our identification. With the tour over we were soon back on board the ship and our time in Jamaica was over.
We had a good time in Jamaica and we were so thankful that we found such an incrdible tour to go on. We seriously couldn't have asked for a better tour if we seeked out ourselves. We are glad that we got to go to Jamaica. The island is one of the prettiest we've seen and the Dunn River Falls is an experiance that is simply amazing. That being said though we don't care to ever go back. One time was enough. It was just very sketchy, the locals were far too pushy, and it just didn't have a good feeling there. We were happy to experiance it once but that was enough for us. At least we had an additional island to mark off our list.
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